Almost perfect

Having taken a short break off from ginger crunch wars, I think I'm heading into a showdown tomorrow.

To prepare for battle I've taken the standard sugar component of the crunch out, and replaced it with a half and half mix of coconut sugar (deeper flavour and dries out the crunch nicely) and raw sugar crystals (adds its own crunch with no effort on my part).

I've also used a new dried ginger spice. I don't know that it makes any difference to the flavour, but it comes in a nicer looking box than the last one I bought, and also had a free recipe for pumpkin soup included in the box.

It was a strange choice of recipe being as how there was no ginger involved in it at all, but I'll have to wait until I open the second box before I work out whether this was a joke at the packing factory or part of their master plan for expansion by including recipes that contain the spices you haven't bought yet.

Back to the ginger crunch I used a new twist on the ginger topping. Instead of making a fudge, toffee or standard recipe induced icing, I decided that the topping I love most in the world is a butter cream icing.

It may have its detractors, but if you overlook the cup of butter and three cups of icing that go into your standard buttercream icing (sized up or down) then all you're left with is milk, and what's wrong with a nice bit of milk, eh?

In order to replicate the stodge of the traditional topping I did move the proportions a bit, and was left with a lovely thick icing that dried very quickly and appropriately on top of the squares of crunch.

My hand is now exhausted because it was so thick that trying to pipe it through a little nozzle required a lot more effort than your standard cake decoration. I'm calling it my workout for the day. My body is a temple.

For anyone wanting to know how the final version worked out, I've included a few photos for your appraisal below.

It's possible they could have used a tad more icing topping, but as it stands they're almost perfect.